- 11:29:00 PM by mark
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- Trading Lies:
Humor about Perl and
Emoticons. Well the second one is only funny if your sense of humor isn't impaired by a large stick up your ass. If you actually know anything about trademarks, you'd realize that all they control is using that frowny to promote a business in the form of a logo. They didn't copyright the three symbols, that is part of the joke. All they have is a legal leg to stand on if you you start a company called Frowny or something and try and promote a product with a graphical or textual ":-(" logo. It is a brand, and is only applicable in its catergory, which on the registration is listed as "Printed matter namely, greeting cards, posters and art prints"
You can't use a flowing red or white ribbon to represent a product unless it is very different from Coca-Cola's, you can't use a frowny emoticon to represent a product now. Despair is a cool company and they use quite silly ways to promote themselves. See their trademark and read about what it means.
Heck compare their Tess record with Xodiax's and see the differences between a word mark and an image mark. Plus, if you were already using the mark too, you are likely grandfathered in since they can't easily take your rights away.
Also, though I've mentioned it once before, I'd like to point out that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is quite web enabled. See the TM info page and look at TESS, TARR, and TEAS. Scads of good information on that first page there...
- 10:46:00 PM by mark
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- Technically Complex:
While having lunch today it occured to me that people who work tech support wind up with a mental complex. Having been a tech as well as a tech manager and then later an outside observer of more than one tech support group I can tell you that this tends to hold true almost globally. You see reflected it in comic sites and humor pieces as well as serious articles about support workers.
I suspect that it is true at least partially on a wider basis for many other types of telephone and direct customer support as well but it seems to be more pronounced for the real tech types.
The problem is you have to start with at least semi-clueful people --at worst -- and force them to talk to semi-clueless -- at best -- people all day. Then you encourage them to help each other and bond and even work together with each other or superiors to solve problems. As it goes along, dealing with these people, they build up a culture of behind-the-scenes desultory behavior and urban legends. They begin to see their role as messianic; they see themselves as persecuted for having the right answers; they wind up literally calling the customers "Philistines."
This complex, well inforced, builds up mightily till they burst. Often they crack on the phones and tell someone off, suddenly hostile and derogatory, insulting and haughty. They tend to begin throwing histronics in public, yelling in hallways or pounding desks. Worse, they begin to see the management of the company in the same light since they are often asked to come to the rescue of a busy and fairly computer-clueless executive. Eventually they may decide that the company is doomed without them and their keen insight into how things actually work in the trenches. Then they act out a scene of insurrection or downright rebellion that gets them tossed out on their ass.
Of course, this is added to by the insular nature or deep introversion that most geeks suffer from. And they tend to be breaking out of those emotional shells as they begin to socialize with their own kind in large numbers for the first time. Imagine a smart person forced to keep quiet or act dumb in order not to be too rejected by the people around them, suddenly thrust into a culture where the smarter you are, the higher you rank. They break out of their chrysalis quite quickly and begin throwing haevy concepts around like nobody's business. Then, after they crack their pod but still have no idea how to keep it to a reasonable volume or interact with average people, shove them and their know-it-all-ness up against a stuborn manager-type.
Kaboom!
The only thing you can do about this cycle is not feed it. The next time you talk with a tech either treat them like a fellow traveller on the road to misery or let them know how happy you are not to have all that soon to be out of date crap floating around in your head. After all, they aren't likely to be that much smarter than you, they just have more time and knowledge than you do. Any monkey can fix computers, or plumbing, or furniture, or electrical wiring; smart monkies with heads and hands full of their own job just find the right monkey for the right job. Don't be mean, but don't let them condescend to you either. If they start talking real slow make sure they know that you aren't slow of hearing, they are just so used to doing it they can do it faster than you. And make them explain why you are doing something and what it does. They hate that because it keeps them on the phone and they have to give up lodge secrets. =)
- 11:19:00 AM by mark
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- Quick Links:
Phat Fat Research,
Body Mass Index,
Epidemic of Internet Medical Hoaxes. The last pun ain't mine, promise. The phat one is way interesting and likely has quotes I should be copying here for posterity (or posterior). The BMI one is is amusing since they call out the hips vs. waist ratio as bogus and point to the weight vs. height squared ratio. Basically they say proportion likely only matters when you ain't fat or thin. =) The last one is pure reverse scare mongering. Now, rather than worrying about that scary new disease you heard about you can worry about how the web is misleading people.
The SXSW thing always sounds so fun, yet so insular. *sniff* I wanna belong but I don't fool myself about how many people read this. =)
Blogs sure are getting attention these days! Like here, for instance. And WTF is Personalization.com trying to sell? Conventions? You'd think their login button would be more accessible.
Insulin in Worms is
cool stuff coming from Genome research. That widdle hormone has been around a long time! And
does a lot of interesting things. Plus, it is cool to see research come from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory since the Perl module "CGI" grew up there. Lincoln is a smart and rather approachable man. Check out his various pages there if you get the chance
Old Payola, New Payola. If I wrote a fulll post about this I wouldn't get any sleep tonite.
Sex Appeal always makes a good title but I was happy to see U of Louisville mentioned without it being about basketball.
Potato! This one you got from someone else, ok?
Gecko Glue has come across my plate for the second time so I have to mention it now. Geckos can stick to anything and they are big enough that it seems almost impossible that something with their weight can crawl around upside down on things. Read why, it is very cool science.
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